CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In July, Facebook showed a beaming, happy Shanann Watts with a group of friends at a Hickory Tavern in Rock Hill.
Less than a month later, the mother, her two young daughters and the son she was carrying were all murdered.
Shanann was a part of a health and welfare program called Thrive Experience. She was promoting it to her friends at the sports bar. The manager remembered the event and said he was saddened to hear what had happened just a few weeks later.
Police said the killer was Shannan's husband, Chris Watts. He reported his family missing earlier this week.
“It just seems like I am living in a nightmare and I can’t get out of it. I just want them home so bad," Chris said in an interview.
On Thursday, police found Shanann’s body on the grounds the company where Chris worked.
A spokesperson issued this statement:
We are heart-broken by this, and our thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones and friends of the Watts family. We will continue to support law enforcement in its investigation. He is no longer an employee and given that the investigation is ongoing, please direct all questions to law enforcement.
A law enforcement source told NBC Charlotte's sister station KUSA that Chris confessed to killing all three of them.
The Watts family came back to North Carolina often. Shanann and Chris were married in Mecklenburg county; her parents live in Aberdeen.
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Prior to moving to Colorado, Shanann lived in a house near the Catawba River in Belmont. The man she sold the house to did not want to be identified but said she seemed anxious to sell and did not show at the closing that was handled instead by an attorney.
People in the Charlotte region who knew her all described her as happy and a good friend. Her Facebook posts gave no hints of trouble at home. Instead, it was a stream of smiling faces and videos of her family.
Chris was being held on suspicion of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. Formal charges were expected to be filed Tuesday.
On Thursday night, authorities said they found two bodies "whom police have strong reason to believe are" four-year-old Bella and three-year-old Celeste.
Kevin Vaughan and Nicole Vap with KUSA as well as NBC Charlotte's Savannah Levins contributed to this report.